Sugar babe

 I found this keyring dolly for sale the other day.....with my very limited supplies here it is nice to know I can continue with my doll altering fetish:) Though I did notice yesterday that the dolls seem to have disappeared, hopefully they will re-appear as I could do with a couple more!

 So, after getting rid of the naff clothes and most of the hair I discovered that you can remove the painted on eyes etc with nail varnish remover and that the remaining hair can be pulled out with tweezers......it leaves a line of holes but that's no big deal!

 Then I set to painting and adding details with markers....I only have red, black and yellow but they are my favs so that's ok!
 Now she looks like this!!!

Colour, colour, colour

 Today I went to a handicrafts market......they are held the last weekend of every month. Lots of colour everywhere........embroidered tunics......

 ....................rugs

 ............felt slippers

 ...........crockery

 the stalls were all outside, the weather is still warm enough.

One thing I was not keen on seeing were these wolf skins.........the stall was selling fur jackets, hats etc something you just don't see in UK these days........it emphasises the cultural differences.

It's Autumn.......

well, almost, so what better to do than alter a couple of acorns?!!
Especially if you have very limited supplies like I have at the moment......I could only bring what I could get in my suitcase......you have to take every opportunity when it presents itself!

 So, walking along today I picked up these acorns, there were loads of them lying around.......husband was not impressed, mutterings of "you are not going to be picking up stuff here like you do at home are you"? Apparently I am!!!!

 Then this afternoon I had fun painting them!

 So there you are.........altered acorns bods!

Arrived!

 I am now in Almaty in Kazakhstan!! While here I am staying in an apartment on the 12th floor of the cream building with blue windows in the above pic!

 This is the view from the balcony outside the kitchen......the building just to the right of the centre is where my husband works

 and if I zoom in just to the right of that building you can just see the tops of the cathedral among the trees!

 Out for breakfast yesterday and spotted this "sculpture"......opinion is divided, Stuart thinks it looks like a car crash!
Almaty has lots of fountains.....this one was just behind the car crash!!
OK, that's all for now! I am sure I will bore you with more pics over the next few weeks!!

A little news

Today I took a trip to London to pick up my passport......it now has a visa in it that allows me to travel to Kazakhstan!!

As some of you will know I have been there before.....back in 2010-2011 when my husband was there working. Well, that job ended and then.......he got another one! So, he has been there since March and now that all the paperwork has been sorted I can join him....again!!

So, on Friday I will be flying out and should be there till the end of November-ish!

Watch this space for Almaty updates and pics!

An "altered" stamp

 

 I saw a piece on Facebook where the faces of some figures had been painted out and then spooky faces drawn in.....what a great idea I thought!! So, I stamped these witches and "altered" their faces!

 I added the stamped piece over a background that was already in a journal.....it was a piece of scrap paper that had been used under other work......and added a little stamped quote.

London and Manchester

On Tuesday I was in London, I spent the morning in Trafalgar Square. It had been quite some time since I had been there.......I found it quite photogenic:)

 The big blue chicken is the latest art installation on the Fourth Plinth.....love it or hate it!

Today I went to Manchester to the Victoria Baths.....opened in 1906 and closed in 1993 after which it fell derelict

 there were three entrances....males 1st class.....males 2nd class and females. 

Inside there were three pools for the three different classes, apparently the water from the 1st class males was pumped out and passed through a simple sand filter into the 2nd class male pool and from there eventually into the female pool. The price of entry into the pools depended on how clean the water was, the dirtier it was the cheaper the entry:)

 the female pool........

 changing cubicles......

 lily stained glass inside a changing cubicle......

 incredible stained glass in the Turkish Bath

 no colour in this piece but still beautiful

 this window is in the clock tower where only the guy who wound the clock once a week would see it

 green tiled stair balustrade

 wall tiles

An incredible place, well worth a visit.

La Calavera Catrina

I've started seeing some Hallowe'en and Day of the Dead stuff starting to appear on Facebook and blogs so thought I'd join in:)
 This page is quite minimal for me, the less is more thing is not something I find easy but I do like the way it looks!

 La Calavera Catrina is my favourite Day of the Dead image.

I like this image so much I even have one on my kitchen wall:)